It is still cheaper to import iPhone with 25% tariffs than to collect in the United States

The absence of robots is not the only thing that prevents the production of iPhone in the USA

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Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, perhaps, is obvious that the new-percent tariff of Trump on Apple should not force the company to move production in the USA because it is still much cheaper to import. Trump announced his 25% tariff on the iPhone Apple & Mdash; this time the name of the American business instead of a pointless statement about foreign countries on Friday, on May 23, 2025, he immediately sends the price of the Apple. with Appleinsider and the interpretation of common sense of long-term exposure tariffs.From the point of view of profitability, for Apple it is much better to get a blow at a 25% fare on the iPhone sold in the US market than to move the iPhone assembly lines back to the United States. Https: //t.co/yctwpmqyep pic.twitter.com/vprrpj0cau

— (Ming-chi kuo) (@mingchikuo) May 23, 2025

Kuo does not go further than to look at the direct cost, but mainly because only this problem is quite convincing. One assessment was when Dan Ives calculated that it would cost Apple more and it will take at least three years for Apple to transfer only 10% of its US supply chain.

that $ 30 billion can be optimistic.

The Morgan Stanley investment company cost hundreds of billions of dollars. And the first two TSMC processor plants in Arizona are already worth $ 40 billion.

If Trump was seriously referring to the return of production in the United States, he will invest in education in order to train a huge number of qualified engineers. Instead, tariffs are a political situation that will cost Apple $ 900 million in the current quarter.

Apple can receive this blow to $ 900 million, and although the new 25 percent tariff itself will add billions to its costs, the company, of course, can withstand this.

only Apple knows that this tariff will cost it as a whole, since the company does not publish sales. Even if this happened, 25% of the tariff is at the price of imports, and not at the final retail price.

Then the tariffs are on a separate IPhone import, and 25% of the iPhone 16 Pro Max will differ from 25% of the iPhone 16.

Kuo is right that the Apple should pay the tariff instead of moving production in the USA. However, if Apple decided to move, this will probably still pay the tariff for each of the years before the start of US production.

Trump says that Apple should be produced in the USA, and he says that his tariffs impede investments in other countries. Instead, they accelerate these investments in foreign countries.

The recent reorganization of Apple of its supply and distribution chains in order to minimize the influence of “mutual” tariffs, however, is only the last over the years of maneuvering the company. While the departure from China is partly associated with a decrease in excessive dependence on one source, this also has long been touched by tariffs.

In 2018, it was reported that the company with the assembly of the iPhone Pegatron moved from China due to trade tension. By 2024, Apple suppliers had already spent more than $ 16 billion on processing plans for places such as India.

, even at the height of Trump's tariffs, Foxconn does not want to move to the United States, he plans to double the IPhone production in India by the end of 2025. They simply see that we are enterprises that receive a blow – MDash; And in the end, passing it to his customers.